On the day Mother’s Day is celebrated, Italy once again discovers that it is far from the most advanced European models in supporting parenting. This is stated in the 2026 global report by World Population Review, which places our country only ranks fifteenth in Europe for conditions offered to new mothers: 22 weeks of maternity leave paid at 80% of salary. Not only are Nordic countries traditionally attentive to family welfare doing better than us, but also places that are often absent from Italian public debate such as Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Poland and Hungary.
The European ranking describes a continent that travels at very different speeds. At the top is Croatia, where leave reaches 58 weeks: for the first six months the pay is full, then a public allowance takes over. Montenegro and the United Kingdom follow with 52 weeks, while Norway guarantees 35 weeks paid at 100%. Even San Marino, often ignored in international comparisons, offers the same 22 weeks as Italy but with full pay.
The Italian data weighs even more in a country marked by demographic collapse and a birth rate at historic lows. The difficulty of reconciling work and family continues to represent one of the main obstacles to the choice of having children. For many women, motherhood still coincides with a professional slowdown, a reduction in career opportunities or, in the worst cases, with leaving the job market.
It is therefore not surprising that the issue of parental leave has now also become an economic and organizational issue. The most attentive companies have understood that investing in family well-being is not only an ethical choice, but also a strategic lever for retaining talent, reducing turnover and improving the internal climate.
This is the case of Zeta Service, an Italian company active in payroll and HR services, which for years has developed an internal system called “Baby Pack”, built to accompany employees during parenthood. An approach that tries to overcome the minimum logic required by law and which focuses above all on sharing care loads between men and women.
«In a country where the choice to have a son or daughter is still too often seen as an obstacle to one’s professional career, adopting a people-centric approach is essential for retaining talent and generating authentic and sustainable organizational well-being», explains Debora Moretti.
Among the measures introduced by the company are 30 days of paid leave granted to all parents, including social or intentional ones, with 20 additional days for fathers in addition to the 10 mandatory ones provided by law. But not only that. Total smart working in the last months of pregnancy, time flexibility in the first months of the baby’s life, permits for inclusion in nursery school, birth bonus of 400 eurosscholarships and bureaucratic support for bonuses and INPS procedures.
The central point, however, is cultural. Because motherhood continues to be perceived, in many workplaces, as an “organizational problem” rather than as a collective responsibility. And as long as care remains almost exclusively on women’s shoulders, the professional gap between men and women will continue to widen.
It is no coincidence that many of the European countries with the most advanced systems have also invested in paternal leave and shared flexibility for some time. The direction indicated by the experts is clear: it is not enough to increase the weeks of maternity leave if the entire cultural model of work does not change.
Emblematic, in this sense, is also the comparison with the United States, bringing up the rear among Western economies: at the federal level, just 12 weeks of absence are guaranteed and moreover unpaid. A situation that shows how family welfare still remains one of the great indicators of social and economic inequalities today.
In the midst of the Italian demographic crisis, the question of parenthood therefore appears less and less a private issue and more and more a collective challenge. Because supporting mothers – and fathers at the same time – does not just mean helping families, but investing in the future of work, of society and of the country itself.
